Monthly Archives: October 2015

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In early October I attended an event called “Festival of the Snow Eaters” just outside of Lethbridge. It’s an SCA event, and one of the highlights for me was the chance to take a few classes taught by other SCA members.

One of the classes I taught was spinning with a drop spindle. While I took a class earlier, at this class I had the chance to try a few new things, including carding alpaca wool (much more challenging than I anticipated!) and working with a bottom-whorl spindle. (Which was a good deal more fussy and difficult than the top-whorl style it seemed!

Looking at some of the other things this month – I think I’d like either of the two darker nail polish colours… but other than that, there isn’t anything else on the list that really jumps out at me. I do wonder… haven’t I already received the pumpkin scrub before? Or was it a mask?

Once I finally received my Glam Bag….

For some odd reason, my bag didn’t come until Oct 22 – it’s usually here around the 15-17th. Not sure why it was late again, but oh well.

I’m feeling super fortunate! A few days ago one of my former teachers called up and offered me some of her fabrics as she de-stashes her collection. A lot of it is older fabrics, polyesters that I probably wouldn’t wear, but there are also some real treats in here as well.

11 big apple boxes later, I pared her offerings down to just 3 of those boxes, while my mum took another box full for her own sewing. After this, I’ll invite some friends over to go through the stash as well for their own sewing, either for their kids or themselves, and then probably save the remaining unclaimed fabric to donate to the Grandmother’s fabric sale in the spring.

This is a class I’ve offered for SCA Grand TUA in October 2015. I’m opting not to do printed notes, and instead am posting my “notes” for the class here, as below.

*Regular disclaimer – I’m presenting here as I’m aware of it. Any links to commercial services does not suggest you should buy from those services; they’re presented as informational only.*

Basic millinery overview

Need something on your head? In this class I’ll discuss a variety of millinery (hat-making) techniques and options, share sources, and discuss pattern-making for millinery.

With Drífa at lækjamoti

No maximum student limit

Cost: Free

1 hour block

Digital hand-out only, no paper copy provided.

Millinery vs. dressmaker hats

When talking about hat-making, there are two distinct styles of hats – dressmaker hats, and millinery. I’ll view them as two separate things. Dressmaker hats being the kind of hats you can completely (or near-completely) construct on your sewing machine, with little underlying structure. Think of the Jorvik Hood, a goldhaube, a mop cap, or a touque. Millinery on the other hand has an underlying structure, or in itself is structured. Think of a wool felt top hat, a medieval henin, straw hat, bycocket, or a French Hood.

Unstructured Tudor hood

Soft Norse pillbox

Purple faux vintage velvet millinery hat

Black fur felt millinery hat

Millinery pillbox

Green Felt millinery on the block with the tipper on top

The underlying structure

The underlying structure, or the structure of a millinery hat can be made of several things. Some are period options, while others are modern compromises. You might compromise because of:

Cost or availability

Packing & transport

Washing, cleaning, or care (especially for a hat that might be shared)

13th century – The Museo de Burgos has a pillbox-style hat from 1255-1275 which is “embroidered with pearls, coral and trimmed in gold, sapphires and garnets”. The museum does not indicate any stiffening used in the hat, or what the underlying fabric is, though the extensive embroidery may provide sufficient stiffening to an already firm fabric. View this hat here: http://www.museodeburgos.com

1350 – a blue felt hat found in the Little Sampford Church in Essex has a formed, domed crown made of “blue felted wool, without any seams” and a sewn-on brim “covered in cream colored tabby woven silk in four sections, and gold wire. Ivory colored tabby woven silk lines the the brim and the inside of the hat. The brim has a red satin woven silk binding along the edge, and a cream silk and silver gilt cord.” Read more about this hat and see Marc Carlson’s pattern here: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/

1536 – the Waterford Treasures Museum has a cap of maintenance given to the mayor of the city in 1536. The hat is described as: “The cap is made from red velvet, possibly imported from Italy, that is embroidered with Tudor Roses and marguerites. It measures circa 116 mm in height by 397 mm in diameter and contains a strip of whale balleen near the top of the hat for additional support.” View the hat here: http://irisharchaeology.ie/

1545 – from the shipwreck of the Mary Rose, three nearly-complete wool hats were recovered. Each has a double brim, and two have a “square silk lining and had a silk band between the brims”. View one of these hats here: http://www.maryrose.org/

1560-1600 – A hat mentioned in Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 3 is described as a high crowned hat with “felt base and silk pile” with an interlining of coarsely woven linen, and a black silk lining. The silk pile was worked by “six-strand plied silk” thread “worked in even rows round the crown”. Another hat, from c1600 is described as being made “of felt covered with black velvet… embroidered with couched gold metal thread”. The hat was “moulded from thick felt” and the crest was “pinched together and stitched through at the base over the top of the head with white linen thread”.

Late 16-17th century – the Museum of London has a wool felt “workman’s” hat on display. This appears to be not much more than a cone hood with a folded up brim secured with a pin. View this hat here: http://www.museumoflondonprints.com

Patterns

There are a number of different patterns available, both commercially, online, and you can draft your own.

No pattern needed

Moulded hats, such as straws, wool felt, and similar hats don’t require a pattern, but rather require the material, tools for blocking, and steam and/or sizing.

Bloggers & costumers

Lots of costumers keep blogs and websites where they share their patterns. Some of these you’ll need to re-size for yourself, or use their examples to draft your own patterns. Review them and analyze if you think they meet your personal criteria for period authenticity.

French Hood – a millinery hat using buckram and millinery wire http://www.elizabethancostume.net/ The author writes that the “original French Hoods were made of a pasteboard or glue-stiffened fabric base, with a wire or perhaps a metal billiment of some kind sewn around the edges to help the hood keep its shape, and covered in a variety of fabrics” and that the “materials necessary for making a French Hood are in all likelihood very similar to those originally used”.

Butterick patterns frequently have hats and headwear patterns with costume patterns, as well as small accessory collections. I don’t see any in the current catalogue: http://butterick.mccall.com/ but check their out-of-print/print-on-demand services. Simplicity patterns also have a few hats in their current catalogue, bundled with costumes: http://www.simplicity.com/

Patterns of Time offer hat/headwear from a number of different designers/patternmakers. See the collection here: http://www.patternsoftime.com Styles include those for our time period, and post-period.

Draft your own

Hat patterns can actually be extremely easy to draft, since frequently you’re looking at only fitting one small area of your head.

Slashing the pillbox pattern to add extra flare

Different parts of the hat are flared to different amounts

Cutting the shape into the flared hat.

Marking pattern notations onto buckram

Tracing off the pattern

Testing out the paper pattern

In the workshop I’ll discuss basic pattern drafting – starting with a pillbox pattern, and adapting it for a hennin (tapered as it rises from the head), and a fillet (flared as it rises up from the head).

Read more!

Hopefully you’ll be inspired to make interesting hats! If you’re interested to see what else I write about insofar as millinery is concerned, follow my “Millinery” category. I show works-in-progress, for both historically influenced, modern, and vintage-inspired hats, as well as class work and museum exhibits featuring interesting headwear. If you’re on Pinterest, join me on my board specifically for hats & headwear.

Looking for inspiration? I love looking at Kat’s Hats – a re-enactor who makes beautiful hats inspired by paintings, effigies, and more, along with her client’s wishes. http://www.kats-hats.co.uk/

Questions?

Leave any questions you might have in the comments below, and I’ll do what I can to answer them!

My September Glam Bag arrived on time, but as usual, I’ve been rather late to blog about it. It took a while to try out some of the goodies… to be able to give you the low-down on what I received.

LIPSTICK

City Color Cosmetics-City Chic Lipstick

Eh. Rather underwhelmed with this – I don’t wear lipstick normally (I usually go for glosses or balms instead) so I likely won’t use this much before it’s ready to toss out. The colour is ok – pretty neutral which is fine. I don’t really have anything bad to say about this (apart from finding the see-through bottom of the container kind of weird), but also don’t really have anything good to say about it.

5/10

MASK

LANEIGE-Water Sleeping Mask

I felt kind of neutral about this when I first got it – it’s really just a moisturiser as far as I can tell – but it seems to be an ok moisturiser (not deeply moisturising though) doesn’t have an offensive scent, and doesn’t seem to irritate my eyes or skin. The name is pretentious though, which is a bit of a turn-off. I wouldn’t buy it, but I’ll use up the little pot of product for sure.

6/10

NAIL POLISH

Formula X-Nail Color in Ignite

This is possibly my LEAST favourite item in my glam bag- I LOVE the tiny nail polish, but the polish itself is terrible – it chipped on the second day I wore it, all three times I put on fresh coats. I even like the colour, but the formula is just not worth it. Even on my toes it chipped after a few days, and I can usually go over a week without needing to touch up my toenail colour.

0/10

EYESHADOW

NYX Cosmetics-ipsy Eye Shadow Trio

This is probably my favourite item out of this glam bag – I’ve used it frequently since I got it, and it’s going to be great for travel too. The colours are dark enough and intense enough to be worthwhile, (well the middle and dark shades are, the lightest one is a bit too light for anything more than highlighting) and the colours themselves are good on my skin tone. I like this brand, and have bought their shadows before, so I was happy to get this one in my glam bag.

10/10

LOTION

Not Soap, Radio- Revitalizing Hand/Body Lotion

The lotion is another kind of underwhelming product. It smells ok, but not great. The moisturiser is fine, but not great. It’s not oily or greasy which is good, but it also doesn’t seem to be very moisturising…

5/10

Points!

I also redeemed Luxie Beauty Tapered Blending Eye Brush 205 for 500 points. Sept 2. and it should have arrived with my September glam bag… but it didn’t. It wasn’t until late September that I got an email saying it would be arriving in my October bag instead… 😦

Want to help me get MORE points for more freebies? Use this URL when you sign up for ipsy: https://www.ipsy.com/new?refer=1ledf and I’ll get 250 points towards cool stuff. (It will take a while though – eyeliner is 1000 points!)